PlayStation Network Honcho Susan Panico -- In the Firing Line

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Crispy Gamer: I hear what you say about quality over quantity. But do you think that PlayStation Network games will ever come out with more frequency than they do now?

Panico: I think it's possible. It depends what the team's goal is. We are fairly new. We've only been around for a year and a half. I think the development community is still figuring out how to take advantage of content delivery and what the delivery method does for game making.

Crispy Gamer: What do you mean?

Panico: One of the things you'll probably see in the near future is more episodic-type content. It will be either in graphic novel storytelling or in games themselves. Some of them will probably introduce all new genres all together.

Crispy Gamer: We see all these numbers about downloads. Right now, what do people seek out on the Network most?

Panico: We see a pretty good split across the board regarding multiplayer, downloadable games, downloadable content. Plus, we just introduced a TV show called "Qore." It's our first foray into original programming.

Crispy Gamer: You know, the thing I hate most about the PlayStation Network is "Qore."

Panico: Really? I would love for you to tell me why.

Crispy Gamer: I was really disappointed with it. The woman who hosts seemed not ready for prime time. I thought the writing was bad: I mean, who wrote we'll have lots of "surprising surprises"? It seemed illiterate. I just felt whoever was doing the canned interviews was so low-key that it passed on to the developers who answer them. They just did not seem excited about their own games.

Panico: I hear you. We're ramping up on our original programming and bringing an executive producer on board, someone who has a lot of TV, film, commercial and video experience. We were very proud of the achievement in terms of the product that we delivered in that we delivered high-definition plus interactivity in a downloadable format.

Crispy Gamer: So what should this show be?

Panico: I think where we want to take it is to be a lot more lifestyle and entertainment-oriented. We want to be the "TRL" of PlayStation. I definitely think there's a lot of room to grow with "Qore." You'll see improvement. Stick with it, because I think you'll be really happy.

Crispy Gamer: Tell us about the new Ratchet & Clank.

Panico: Well, it will be downloadable for $14.99. It's taking something people love and that's familiar. It will broaden what's on the Network.

Crispy Gamer: How did that come about? Why Ratchet & Clank and not something else?

Panico: I think there are two things. It helps bridge the time lapse between the franchises, so it gives people more of a taste of one of the franchises they love without having to wait two years for a PS3 game to be developed. It also introduces people to the franchise by giving them something that's a lot quicker to play. Since it's not a full game, they can get introduced to the characters and the gameplay really fast. I'm not really sure how long the game is; we can check. But I think it's like, four or five hours.